MANILA, Philippines – Megaworld Corp., the flagship firm of property tycoon Andrew L. Tan, is jumpstarting the development of a P35-billion township project with the launch of the office space component early next year.

The three office towers within the Woodside City mixed-use community in Pasig City will cater to increasing demand from the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector, a company official said.

“With the increasing demand for sustainable office towers from our clients, we are committed to build more green buildings in Woodside City,” said Megaworld first vice-president Jericho P. Go.

Go said Megaworld, the largest office landlord in the country with around 712,000 square meters (sqm) of office space inventory, so far has 126 tenants, most of which are BPO companies looking to expand local operations.

The first of the three office towers will be launched early next year, for completion in 2017.

Megaworld will build Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-registered office buildings in the township project. The company hired world-renowned architectural firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill to design the first building that will offer 50,000 sqm of office space.

The 12.3-hectare Woodside City, located along C-5 Road, will become an environment-friendly mixed-use development as roughly 1,000 trees will be planted around the project.

“This greening feature will help provide an outdoor thermal comfort for the future residents, workers, tenants and visitors of the township,” Megaworld said.

Aside from office towers, the township will also feature residential condominiu0ms, a lifestyle mall, retail and commercial strips, open parks and a transport hub.

“The very concept of a township is to reduce and minimize the carbon footprint of the community,” Go said, adding that residents need not commute for their daily tasks.

Woodside City is positioned an alternative to existing business districts in the metropolis. It is 3.2 kilometers (km) away from Eastwood City in Quezon City, 1.2 km. from the Ortigas central business district, 2.9 km away from Bonifacio Global City and 5.9 km away from financial hub.

“As a pioneer of the live-work-play concept in the Philippines, we have already mastered the development of townships. Megaworld is continuously looking for opportunities to expand our township portfolio across the country in the next five years,” said Go.

Megaworld currently has eight existing townships around the country: the 17-hectare Eastwood City; the 50-hectare McKinley Hill, the five-hectare Forbes Town Center, the 15.4-hectare Uptown Bonifacio, and the 34.5-hectare McKinley West in Fort Bonifacio; the 25-hectare Newport City in Pasay; the 28.8-hectare Mactan Newtown in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu and the 72-hectare Iloilo Business Park in Mandurriao, Iloilo City.

Megaworld’s net income reached P6.55 billion in the nine-month period to September last year, up 15 percent from P5.7 billion a year ago on growing sales from several township projects and revenues from office buildings.

In more than 20 years of operations, the Megaworld has completed more than 240 residential and office buildings with a total floor area of around six million square meters.